Story Highlights

CLEVELAND – The Indiana Pacers are good, but they are not as good as the Cleveland LeBrons. Not when their head coach swallows his last timeout. Not when their defensive player on the final play swallows his last foul. Not when the referee swallows his whistle. Add all of that up, and then multiply it by LeBron, and the Pacers are on the brink of elimination after this 98-95 loss in Game 5 gave Cleveland a 3-2 series edge.

Look, it’s possible the Pacers weren’t going to beat the LeBrons anyway on Wednesday night. Even if they called that timeout, committed that foul, got that whistle. We’ll never know. What we do know is this:

The Pacers are being confronted in this NBA playoff series by the best player in the world, maybe the best player the world has ever seen, and for the third time in five games, they have just barely failed to beat him.

In the final 3 seconds of Game 5, LeBron James (perhaps illegally) blocked Pacers star Victor Oladipo at one rim and buried a 25-footer into the other, just barely beating the buzzer – and the Pacers, who now must win two games in a row, Game 6 on Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and then Game 7 on Sunday back here at Quicken Loans Arena, to keep their season alive.

Against the Cleveland Cavaliers, winning two games is possible. Against the Cavaliers, an Eastern Conference team with an NBA roster and an NBA coach, the Pacers can win. Dare I say it, the Pacers are better than the Cavs. And when they play the Cavs, when LeBron is merely a mortal, they do win. Happened in Game 1. Happened in Game 3.

But when they play the LeBrons? They are the comic foil, the victim, the coyote to LeBron’s roadrunner, the Generals to his Globetrotter.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) celebrates his game-winning three-point basket in the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers in game five of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) makes a game-winning, three-point basket in the fourth quarter beside Indiana Pacers forward Thaddeus Young (21) in game five of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) celebrates his game-winning three-point basket in the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers in game five of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Indiana Pacers' Myles Turner dunks the ball against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first half of Game 5 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series, Wednesday, April 25, 2018, in Cleveland. Tony Dejak, AP

Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James (23) drives to the basket against Indiana Pacers' Thaddeus Young (21) in the first half of Game 5 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series, Wednesday, April 25, 2018, in Cleveland. Tony Dejak, AP

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Larry Nance Jr. (22) grabs a rebound against Indiana Pacers forward Thaddeus Young (21) in the second quarter in game five of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) drives against Indiana Pacers forward Bojan Bogdanovic (44) in the second quarter in game five of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo (4) drives against Cleveland Cavaliers center Kevin Love (0) in the first quarter in game five of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

iIndiana Pacers center Domantas Sabonis (11) drives against Cleveland Cavaliers forward Larry Nance Jr. (22) in the first quarter in game five of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) reacts in the first quarter against the Indiana Pacers in game five of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:

In Game 5, LeBron had 44 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. He was 14-for-24 from the floor, and made all 15 of his free throws. He got to the rim when he wanted, and he either finished or was fouled. And when he was fouled, he hit his free throws. Unstoppable.

In Game 2, which the LeBrons won 100-97, James scored the game’s first 16 points and then had 11 late in the fourth quarter, finishing with 46 points on 17-for-24 shooting. He also had 12 rebounds and five assists.

In Game 4, which the LeBrons won 104-100, he had 32 points and 13 rebounds and five assists and two blocks.

On the bright side, and there is a bright side for the Pacers: They can play better. Specifically speaking, they can get much better offense from their best player, Oladipo, who led the Pacers to the precipice of a beautiful breakthrough through three games of this series – the Pacers won Game 3 for a 2-1 edge – but has since fallen off a cliff. After going 5-for-20 from the floor overall (1-for-8 on 3-pointers) in Game 4, that 104-100 loss to the LeBrons, Oladipo was 2-for-15 from the floor (1-for-7 on 3’s) in Game 5.

Oladipo scored 32 points in Game 1. He has scored 29 in the last two games, combined, and he is trending downward. Five games into the series, here is his scoring total per game: 32, 22, 18, 17, 12.

Here is his shooting percentage, per game, which has seen a similar plummet: 57.9 percent (11-for-19 in Game 1) … 50 percent (9-for-18) … 33.3 percent (5-for-15) … 25 percent (5-for-20) … and 13.3 percent (2-for-15 in Game 5).

Oladipo wouldn’t say it, but he looked exhausted. In the fourth quarter he was being defended by J.R. Smith and couldn’t get the ball. Couldn’t get open. Wasn’t even coming close to being open, and Smith is not a great defender. Oladipo has been carrying the Pacers all season, and he is not built like LeBron, a 6-9, 275-pound locomotive-helicopter hybrid. LeBron is a machine, and machines don’t get tired. Oladipo is 6-4, 210. He’s human. They get tired.

Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James celebrates after scoring the game-winning shot at the buzzer in Game 5 of the first-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday in Cleveland.(Photo: Tony Dejak/AP)

Even so, the Pacers had a chance to beat the LeBrons, or at the very least to force overtime, but they screwed up the final three seconds, at both ends of the floor, perhaps with an assist from the official. On offense, they had the ball with 26.3 seconds to play and the game tied at 95. They gave the ball to Oladipo, who was defended by J.R. Smith, but not for long. Because to beat the LeBrons, you must beat the man himself. And so LeBron hustled out to midcourt after a screen and took Oladipo himself.

And Oladipo, to his credit, attacked. Got past LeBron. Headed for the rim and maintained possession of the ball as Kyle Korver was reaching for it, clawing at it. Oladipo soars to the rim for a layup when a shadow passes overhead, blotting out the lights and the scoreboard and eventually his shot. It was LeBron, of course, smearing Oladipo’s shot against the backboard.

Was it goaltending? I saw it live and, like the referees, didn’t think so. With the benefit of instant-replay, including some looks available online that have been slowed down dramatically, it appears Oladipo throws the ball off the glass an instant before James swoops in from behind and swats it.

Oladipo thinks so, and probably will face a fine after this critique of the Game 5 officials:

“It hit the backboard, then he blocked it,” Oladipo said of LeBron. “There’s replays I guess you guys could see. It was a goaltend. It’s hard to even speak on it. It just sucks, honestly, even though we fought our way back and tied the game up. That (blocked) layup is huge. Give him credit where credit is due. The (game-winning) 3 was big time. That was huge. (But) who’s to say they even run that play? So it’s unfortunate. It’s really sucks that they missed that.”

Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo has scored fewer points in each successive game of the series against Cleveland.(Photo: David Richard/USA TODAY Sports)

Asked about the play, whether he thought he had committed goaltending, LeBron brought the media room to a standstill:

“I definitely thought it was goaltend,” he said, and somewhere a pin was dropping. Because I heard it. But then …

“Of course I didn’t think it was goaltend, man,” he said as the room broke into nervous laughter.

Whatever the case … Cleveland rebounded and called timeout with three seconds left.

Which means: Oladipo took that final shot with two seconds on the shot clock, close to perfectly done, but close isn’t good enough in the final seconds of a playoff game against the LeBrons. Oladipo’s miss gave the LeBrons three seconds to get off a makeable shot, and you know how that turned out.

What you don’t know, what I didn’t know until Pacers coach Nate McMillan himself volunteered it after the game, was that the Pacers had a foul to give. LeBron caught the ball with three seconds left, 40 feet from the basket, defended by Thaddeus Young. Fouling LeBron as he worked for his shot would have made the Cavs start over again, this time with perhaps one second left. But Young, who had five fouls, didn’t foul LeBron. McMillan, it sounds like, never suggested it.

Nor did he call a timeout to do so. Another thing McMillan himself suggested he could have done.

“I’ll take that (blame),” McMillan said, and then explained why. “We have a timeout as far as what we see, and we have a foul to give. We leave here with both of them.”

They come home to Bankers Life Fieldhouse, where they can beat the Cavaliers but have yet to prove they can beat the LeBrons.